St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-04-28
ON COLLECTING PICTURES.
April Wide Aqoake.

"NO matter how rich L am, or how
many better pictures l have in my
house," said a friend of mine, "tha'
one shall always have place of hon
orr He pointed to landscape, not
nearly SO good as the other pictures in
the room, and went on: "1t is the first
painting | ever bought, and paid six
ty dollars for it when / was clerk on
four hundred year"
A young man must love pictures and
know something about them before he
is willing to give almost sixth of his
income for one, and to deny himself
the dollar a week which he might
spend for cigars and theatre tickets.
The love of pictures is one that does
not usually grow suddenly or pass
away quickly. 1t is taste that must
begin when a boy or girl is very young.
Indeed, no one is too young to make Il
beginning of what may one day be a
gallery of paintings, or a fine collec
ton of etchings or old prints.
A good way to begin is by saving
every wood cut from illustrated news
papers on subject that interests you.
L have seen a scrap book of such wood
cuts, illustI ating London scenes which
the collector said that he had never
been able 10 find in photographs. Any
one who has such scrap book as this
feels at home the first time he goes to
London, for the Punch and Judy
shows, the boys eating oysters at street
stalls, the children building grottOes
of the shells, the Seven Dials on a Sat
urday night, the cats meat men, and
all the other street sights, are rs famil
Tor In Of oil fri
Another good collection is of pic
lures illustrating favOrite stories, pO-
ems, plays or scenes in history. There
glish or American weekly papers which
you can buy for almost nothing at the
second hand shops. You will find
there, too, magazines at five cents each
that yield wOOdcuts worth keeping.
Steel engravings from art journals are
often for sale at these shops for ten
cents apiece.
You can begin collection to illus
trate the styles of different artists. II
you have friends who are going abroad
and wish to send for something that
will give you the largest return for the
money expended, ask for photographs
from pictures. They are much cheap
er in France and Italy than here, and
may be sent home free of duty I'M
mounted, on wooden rollers. They
usually come uninjured, although they
once in while show signs of having
been opened in the custom house. If
you cannot send abroad, yOu can find
copies in cabinet size at the salesrOOms
of photograph companies in the large
cities, which send catalogues all over
the country, aud fill orders through
the mails.
One of the pleasantest collections of
photographs that you can make is of
illustrations of some favOrite book. AT
one time, everybody who went to
Rome brought home photographs to-
illustrate The Marble Faun; and no
traveller left Florence without col
lection of the scenes of ROmOla. These
collections were for sale in the shops.
There is, however, more pleasure in
buying one or two photographs at II
time, us a friend of mine bought them
for two or three years, until she had
enough to illustrate Henry Esmond.
She then had a large, fine edition of
the book bound in two volumes in
stead of one, with cabinet photographs
inserted, mounted on cardboard. The
faces of William and Mary, Louis XIV,
Queen Anne, Addison, Steele, and
many another famous character look
out from the pages, and views of Tenn
pie bar, the Temple Garden, st. Paul's,
Chelsea, Trinity College in Cambridge,
Cathedral, the Church of
Saint Gudule in Brussels, and, indeed.
all the scenes which could be found,
make the story real chronicle of his
tOric events. Westward Ho! is an
other good book to illustrate with pho
tOgraphs of DevOnshire scenes and
portraits of the poets, sailors and
statesmen of Queen Elizabeth's time.
Raleigh, Spenser, Sidney, Drake, the
queen herself and Mary of Scotland
are only few of the procession of his
tOrical characters that moves through
its pages.
The South KensingtOn Museum pub
fishes for the English government pho
tOgraphic copies of portraits from Hen
ry' Wills time down, at two shillings
each, and has, | think, catalogue of
them. A money order for fifty cents
will bring back portrait of any ia
vOrite character in English history for
three hundred and fifty years. | have
seen a life of Mary, Queen of Scots,
bound in four volumes, instead of the
original two, and illustrated with
copies of every portrait of the queen
herself which could be found, and also |
portraits of the celebrated characters |
Of her time, and colored prints show
ng the costumes of the period. One
IF the five cent heliotypes of which /
nave spoken, is from "a rare engraving
If "A stiff fnlI-lenOth DOrtrait Of Mary
With her son by her side, straight
title figure in IA high hat and skirts
ouching the ground.